A time for celebrations?

Only a handful of days remain of Schalke's one-hundredth year. Was it a good centennial? Let's see.

Schalke began their jubilee year in perfect fashion, winning at rivals
Dortmund thanks to a last-minute goal by the Dane Ebbe Sand ­ a fans' favourite who'd been going through a barren spell.

That win was particularly
nice because it meant Schalke also overtook Dortmund in the standings,
rising to sixth place after 18 rounds. But three of the next four matches
finished scoreless, and by the time the big party came around ­ on May 4 ­
Schalke's fans had to face the fact they couldn't gain any ground and would
end the seaon not only behind Dortmund, but also behind small neighbours
Bochum.

Three weeks later, there was the Champions League final, played in
Gelsenkirchen in part because of Schalke's birthday. It generated a revenue
of more than 26m Euros for the city and the region and certainly did what it
was meant to do: carry the name of the club and the city it represents into
the world.

But it wasn't quite the occasion it should have been. There was
no Real Madrid on hand, no Manchester United or one of the glamorous Italian
giants.

On top of that, the game between Monaco and Porto turned out to be
such a one-sided affair that mighty few people outside of Portugal will
forever fondly remember this balmy night in Gelsenkirchen.

Then the new season reared its friendly face. Schalke, which the noted
magazine Stern rightfully calls 'the most legendary football club in
Germany', hadn't won a national championship since 1958. But there was hope.

New arrivals included Ailton, who'd just lifted the Golden Boot, and two of
the league's best and most consistent defensive players, the Serb Mladen
Krstajic and the Brazilian Marcelo Bordon.

Another well-known man was at the
helm, coach Jupp Heynckes. But even before things had gone underway,
kicker magazine sceptically predicted: 'Schalke face another turbulent
year. But the quality of the squad should suffice to qualify for the UEFA
Cup.'

That was certainly not what Schalke's many fans had wanted to read, as
making it back into Europe without the ignominy of having to play in the Intertoto
Cup should have been the absolute minimum demand placed on a team bolstered
by such good newcomers.

Yet the assessment was well-founded.

kicker listed 'harmony between the
coach and the team' as one of the things Schalke needed to improve on.

They
obviously didn't. In mid-September, Schalke were in a relegation spot, and
the powerful business manager Rudi Assauer felt forced to act.

'The
relationship between the team and the coach is not intact,' said Assauer
upon firing Heynckes. 'Jupp is an old-school type of coach and that's what
he wanted to remain. But we're no longer dealing with a generation of
players that would have fit into the 60s or 70s.'

Porto won the Champions League final at Schalke's stadium in 2004 but it was not the blue riband final that the club wanted.

And so, with only three months left of 2004, Schalke's special year was in
ruins. And for the first time in eight years there was mounting criticism
directed at the man who for all practical purposes had become Schalke 04 ­
Assauer.

Back then, in 1996, the business manager had learned of problems
between the playing staff and coach Joerg Berger.

Yet there was no easy
solution at hand, as Berger was adored by the fans: he had first saved the
team from relegation, then led it back into Europe for the first time in
almost twenty years. At the beginning of the 1996-67 season, Assauer sent
out a signal to the squad by extending Berger's contract.

But this didn't
silence the disgruntled players, Jens Lehmann and the Dutchman Youri Moulder
prominent among them.

In late September, Schalke earned a draw at Roda
Kerkrade to qualify for the second round of the UEFA Cup. A week later,
Assauer fired Berger and signed Huub Stevens, Kerkrade's coach.

There was such an uproar that the fans booed their own team at the next home
game and policemen had to guard the dressing room area. (We're talking
helmets, truncheons and shields here.)

But eight months later, Stevens and
Schalke won the UEFA Cup against Inter, and Assauer was suddenly the man who
always does the right thing. He's cultivated this image since and it sure
came handy, because Assauer has spent the past years walking the tighest of
ropes.

On the one hand, he preserved Schalke's role as the most
tradition-laden club in the country and fostered the image of closeness to
the people. That was a good strategy, considering rivals Dortmund were
turning into a faceless, unloved corporation during the same time.

Yet on the other hand Assauer first loaned, then spent millions on building
the high-tech Arena which hosted this year's Champions League final ­ and on
strengething the team.

Two weeks ago, he announced Bremen's Fabian Ernst
will join Schalke the next year ­ the fourth Werder player to take this
route in three years. (The others are goalkeeper Frank Rost, Ailton and
Krstajic.) 'When will Assauer buy Werder's coach driver?' asked a tabloid,
but the Schalke man is unfazed.

His unique blend of a keen and perhaps cold
business sense with a gruffy yet charming down-to-earthness has led his
counterpart at Dortmund, Michael Meier, to describe him as a 'cashmere
hooligan'.

Yet in September, Assauer's aura was in doubt. 'He's now got to live with
the stigma of having pulled the second flop ashore', said a well-known radio
pundit, referring to Schalke's last two coaches.

'And burdened by an
estimated debt of 100m Euros, the club is condemned to having to qualify for
Europe.'

Heynckes: Shown the door by teflon-coated business manager Assauer.

But Assauer just took a long drag on the Davidoff Grand Cru No. 3
that is an integral part of his face and pulled off another stunt.

He signed
coach Ralf Rangnick, nicknamed the 'professor' and, according to the paper
Die Welt, 'a pedagogue, not a ranter'.

This was meant to say he didn't fit
Schalke ­ but he must have fit Schalke's players, for the side immediately
enjoyed an uncanny string of successes.

As the club's 100th year draws to a
close, the team is level on points with league leaders Bayern, whose
business manager Uli Hoeness says: 'It looks as if Schalke are our closest
rivals'.

So I guess it's been a good Schalke year after all. Hope the same can be
said of you, the reader. May your dreams for 2005 come true.